I was lucky enough to attend one of the Optima Ultimate Streetcar events this weekend. Shot a few Gopro videos of my runs on the autocross. Wow was that fun! The conversion to power steering and larger front tires really improved the driving ability of the car not so much for the driver.

bugdewde wrote:Holy-Moly..... that looks much faster/open than the tight course at Cruisin' the Smokies. Great that your steering woes are better. Hopefully, no more injured fingers..... lol.

You better believe it, that was a fun fast course! I really enjoyed driving the car this weekend but i took a hunk of skin out of the palmof my hand working on the car Saturday so that put an end to the fun.

avewhtboy wrote:...................... but i took a hunk of skin out of the palmof my hand working on the car Saturday so that put an end to the fun.

WTH? Details, man!

On about the 5th run on the autocross the power steering belt flipped over on the pulley and caused the power steering to be erratic. I was trying to turn the engine by hand using the crank pulley. Well that pulley is billet and apparently pretty sharp so it just took a chunk of skin out of the palm of my hand.

I got the belt fixed and went out for a couple more runs when it threw both the alternator and the power steering belts when i tached it out to 6000rpm for extended period.

At that point the engine was really hot and I my hand was hurting so I just loaded on the trailer and headed home.

All things considered you hurt your pinky playin' with your Sweet @$$ Car Harry P.S. I have to be me sometimes and that is a lot more often lately, and I'm jealous is all, that Auto-X track looks bigger than some road courses I've seen!

Harry, you crack me up. One day, I'm gonna make the MonzaQue when I get a passport and all that crap.... we gotta hang out.You saw my video where he was "fighting" the Vega's slow manual box on the autocross course, right? https://youtu.be/xalwACFC8p8

That autocross course I just posted was pretty tight, as opposed to this one Rick posted..... while power is a good asset to have, this short, tight course really needed steering, braking, handling and course knowledge to be fast. The faster ratio of the PS box will be a definite improvement...... if you don't lose too much flesh in the whole deal Sorry, Rick......

I'm jealous of all the autocross going on lately..... my buddy with a kick-a$$ Duster is really rubbing it in my face with all the events he's been to lately.... now Rick is doing it, too.

Well Dwight I let Rick know that was coming, He IS a GREAT SPORT! [with a similar sense of humour, as are many here] That Optima course was huge from the video. I think I have seen smaller road courses! It would seem that Rick maybe has an alignment issue with the belts, I know how hard it is to De BUG a car, there are countless things we aren't ever happy with, and then there are all the things we thought were great and they: us, and then when we think we finally have it and: I am truly sorry for Ricks Injury, and as a guy that does his job with his hands [also with sharp steel] I am PAINFULLY aware of the rest of the details! As for the hangin' out, I am hoping to have the pleasure of your company and many others here! I too would love to log some "Track time" but all the tracks are at some distance from here [except two and they involve crossing the border which is a crap shoot time wise so that is also somewhat limiting] Harry

I'm not a hoarder I'm a preservationist 78 Monza Spyder (Soon To Be 2+2 with Spoilers)

That autocross course was a lot of fun! I wish I had got to do more runs and walked it first but this trip came together quickly with very little planning. We left Friday night about 9pm got to the hotel at 1am up at 7am to get to track, still an hour away.

Went to tech the car and then have stickers put on they called a drivers meeting and then it was go time. So it was a thrash just to get to the event. The first run I was totally lost and shocked how wide open and fast the autocross layout was. After running several times on these really tight tracks I was happy to see this wide open track. With the new steering components and larger front tires and larger front brakes I was interested to see how the car was. It didnt disappoint really except for throwing the belts at redline!

I however didn't have enough seat time or confidence to really push the car at all. I left a ton of time on the table in the autocross and the speedstop challenge. I probably could have dropped at least 2 seconds on my autocross time if i went out and flogged it. I was worried about the optics of me taking out 20 cones my first time at the event! I only got one cone in my 5 runs. Really was hoping for about 10 runs.

The speedstop I only ran once so there was a lot of time there to gain, the car stops better than it ever has and it still has salvage yard rotors and autozone brake pads so lot of room there for improvement still.

All in all it was a lot of fun but I didn't get to enjoy my race weekend near as much as I had hoped. Road America coming up, very tempting!